Does Shogun 2 need mods to be enjoyable?

[Sir Blackbeard]

Hi,

so do you think it worth getting a Darthmod or something? My biggest fear is that the diplomacy with vanilla won't be as good as with Darthmod, right?

[Plan C]

To answer the thread title - no, it doesn't. Vanilla game (after all the patches) is still very enjoyable.

That said, mods do breathe new life into the game and make it even better. I never really played much Darthmod, but have installed the following mods throughout my time with the game:

a) Radious

Specifically these components:

- AI
- Diplomacy
- Fixes & Features
- Stats
- Experience
- Naval
- Garrisons

Radious mods only add small tweaks to the way the game works but overall make the campaign work much better than vanilla, I've found. Defo recommended. Visually the game is the same, though.

b) Movement_Speed_Reduction

In conjunction with every other mod; movement speed reduction is a must for me to make battles a little longer and a little less mad.

c) True_Samurai

Excellent standalone mod, adds a new dimension to the campaign, makes it a lot slower and adds new stuff. Found it very, very enjoyable.

d) Darthmod + Expanded Japan

Haven't played too much of that due to RL commitments. It uses the new map which splits some provinces into smaller chunks (historically inspired) and adds tons of smaller clans. However, I've found the mod to not be balanced correctly, build times / tech are not adjusted for 12tpy and Realm Divide meter is not adjusted for the much bigger number of regions. Still good, though, for what I've played.

e) Sakanade's FoTS Traditional Mod

Fall of the Samurai only; my favourite FoTS mod so far, it uses Radious components but makes playing traditional way (i.e. old-fashioned units, not progressing beyond development level 1) feasible and very enjoyable.

Hope this helps.

[Junaidi83 de Bodemloze]

no mod is perfect, example darth mod maybe have deep complex about how the ai work , but its lack of unit, which make the radious the winner in term of variety of unit, then when you compare to sekigahara mods, you find its brand new free dlc campaign which is nice anyways, what make mods is enjoyable if you make the mod itself and play it to suite your style , just think like fishing.

[Joseph Simonyi de Vitézvár]

Not necessarily. The vanilla game and the mods both have a good and bad thing about them. Some of them have multiple things. It's up to you what you're looking for, especially if you want to try a mod out for fun .

[AngryTitusPullo]

For the record I did completed all playable factions in vanilla except Otomo on vanilla. The first time and first TW games that I manage to do that. Of course adding mods sometimes makes it more fun depending on what's you're looking for but vanilla wise it's the best (IMHO) of all TW games out there.

[ikyu828]

For the record I did completed all playable factions in vanilla except Otomo on vanilla. The first time and first TW games that I manage to do that. Of course adding mods sometimes makes it more fun depending on what's you're looking for but vanilla wise it's the best (IMHO) of all TW games out there.

agree, imo fots and ntw are also excelent in vanilla

[Darth_Revan]

It's about personal preference. I use the darthmod with FOTS for bayonets and what not.

[Destin Faroda]

Unmodded TW games are unhistorical, arcadish junk to appeal to the masses which despise tactics and strategy.
- The unit stats are ridiculous -> shorter battles
- Movement speeds are way too high -> marathon battles with no time for strategy
- projectiles are absolutely unrealistic -> bows outshoot modern guns
- The resource system is a joke, but CA is probably not able to include a proper resource system like in Victoria II
- Only 5 (in the case of the Boshin campaign only 4) building slots
- Junk buildings like different dojos for the different unit types
- Bad, suicidal BAI
- Bad CAI
- etc.

If you want more depth and a little bit of challenge, you need a proper realism mod.

[Aleksandr Vasilyevich Suvorov]

Unmodded TW games are unhistorical, arcadish junk to appeal to the masses which despise tactics and strategy.
- The unit stats are ridiculous -> shorter battles
- Movement speeds are way too high -> marathon battles with no time for strategy
- projectiles are absolutely unrealistic -> bows outshoot modern guns
- The resource system is a joke, but CA is probably not able to include a proper resource system like in Victoria II
- Only 5 (in the case of the Boshin campaign only 4) building slots
- Junk buildings like different dojos for the different unit types
- Bad, suicidal BAI
- Bad CAI
- etc.

If you want more depth and a little bit of challenge, you need a proper realism mod.

I agree. Vanilla Shogun 2 is a hopeless mess. The main reason people like it is that they have never seen any better...

[Kaidonni]

I agree. Vanilla Shogun 2 is a hopeless mess. The main reason people like it is that they have never seen any better...

I mod Medieval 2, Stainless Steel 6.4 with Byg's Grim Reality V, and I know the depth that BGR V offers can never be rivalled by Empire Total War or onwards. I still enjoy Shogun 2, and after I'm satisfied with vanilla, knowing what I like and don't like and what I personally feel can and should be improved upon, I shall be discerning which mods will best further my gaming experience. At the moment, I am quite impressed by vanilla Shogun 2 in comparison to the vanilla versions of most of the other Total War games, certainly more impressed than I was with Empire (with or without mods).

[yutterh]

I mod Medieval 2, Stainless Steel 6.4 with Byg's Grim Reality V, and I know the depth that BGR V offers can never be rivalled by Empire Total War or onwards. I still enjoy Shogun 2, and after I'm satisfied with vanilla, knowing what I like and don't like and what I personally feel can and should be improved upon, I shall be discerning which mods will best further my gaming experience. At the moment, I am quite impressed by vanilla Shogun 2 in comparison to the vanilla versions of most of the other Total War games, certainly more impressed than I was with Empire (with or without mods).

I agree, the only problem was realm divide. Everything else does what a mod is supposed to do and that is t enhance the gaming experience not fix the game. unlike empire and rome 2.

[yutterh]

I highly recommend radious. I used to play with darthmod only but I found radious to be much better. The only thing darth mod really ahd was the units mixing up, large number, and customizability with the launcher. Now it has the expanded map to go with it. The expanded map isn't all it is cracked up to be. Some places are a cluster **** of castles and even though it add's more people it just feels very tedious. Radious has pretty much everything I wanted. I didn't see the true samurai mod and I will be testing it out on the next play through. Seems very interesting.

[Vice]

I must respectfully disagree with the above poster about using radious over darthmod. I found radious's mod not to be up to par with darth's(though he does a pretty decent job in rome 2 besides the battle part of his mods). There were so many stack spams playing radious it was unreal. I remember playing as the Date and by the time I had one stack spam up the AI had three...needless to say I dumped it after that. Add in the effects like bayonets and better unit card pictures for generals and agents (in shogun 2) and darth is by far the better mod.

[yutterh]

Okay maybe better in everyway was a little much I agree. I do like the stack spam so far. Because there is always a huge battle and wiping out a faction is a huge task. For me it makes that final battle so much tastier. I do feel radious has a better battle system hands down. I used to like the chaotic darth mod but it felt so much more like a true battle when there are battle lines. But they are two totally different styles and it would be better for you to come up with your own decision. So try them both out. Try custom battles first to see which battle system you enjoy more. Then play the campaign a little with both.

[[N2]Kami]

I think you need only the 8x province mod and color/soldier skin mod (like vastador unit mod) then you are good to go. The vanilla is good enough to enjoy.

[Anna_Gein]

To me Shogun 2 is a good game. It does not need mods to be enjoyable except maybe something for the Realm Divide as it butcher the diplomatic part which was otherwise working perfectly for the first time (and currently only time despite R2) of TW history. At least for someone who played TW since RTW.

With this said I think there are quite some mods to use for a better experience. In my personal case, something for longer and slower battles, code colour changes, weaker Rock/Paper/Scissors.
You might want to check all the mods that adds flavour to the game without affecting too much its gameplay like different models for generals for example.

[Junaidi83 de Bodemloze]

Well i guess take it or leave it, either way learn to mod it , so you free to satisfied your heart content..... Great......how about we make some demi god unit ?

[Kaidonni]

In the long run, all Total War games benefit greatly from the efforts of modders. For me, Shogun 2 appears to be the most polished vanilla game since, well...Medieval I. Yep, that's where I started. Rome I was also quite good for a while, but the stains started to show. I don't doubt the same will happen with Shogun 2, but at the moment I'm not inclined to use any mods (I only got it at Christmas, and haven't played much yet).

[GraaEminense]

Been playing vanilla FotS for quite a few hours now, and while it's a decent TW game I think I'd prefer to add some mods. Most importantly, I'd like the units rebalanced for realism -basically, I want something on the lines of Shogun 2 Total Realism.

What's a recommended mod setup? Darthmod seems to get the most shout-outs?

[yutterh]

Darth mod would be what you want if your going for realism.